The Obligatory Pre-Departure Blog

Well...this is the classic I'm-in-college-so-what-the-hell-of-course-I'll-blindly-travel-across-the-world-to-find-myself blah blah blah experience, right? I mean, at what other point in your life do you pick up everything, move several thousand miles away for a few months and live in a tiny tiny apartment with very little money just to, you know, figure out who you are (or something along those lines)? But I'm trying not to think of it as that cliche college experience where I travel, get drunk several hundred times and only kinda sorta remember what actually happened when I studied abroad. I mean, this is Paris - I want to be able to remember the colors of the Parisian alleys, the cobblestoned corridors that lead to nowhere and everywhere... I want to live like a Parisian.

Just to clear this up, I am a 20 year old (soon to be 21!) college student at the University of Denver studying political science and international studies; more importantly, I am a 20 year old girl who tends to romanticize foreign travel, something that I recently realized during my travels to India. And while there are far worse traits to have, this does tend to get me in trouble when I actually arrive at my destination. But I really do hope that Paris will live up to all of my romanticized thoughts about it - after all, it is supposed to be the most romantic city in the world. And this is not my first time to Paris - I stopped there for 2 days, which in my opinion was far too short, last summer on my whirlwind band tour (yes, I am a nerd) - so I already have the Paris bug. In fact, as cliche (again) as this sounds, I completely fell in love with the taste of Paris I had...which meant that I jumped at the opportunity to spend four months living there under the code name "Studying Abroad."

But it won't all be cool Parisian nights under the Eiffel Tower sipping wine. I have a wonderful boyfriend named Frazer who is already in Copenhagen for his study abroad who I miss terribly (for the record, he's been gone about 2 days now). And I know that seeing all those beautiful couples in love winding their way through the alleys under my apartment window is going to crush me. And then there's the part of the adventure that involves classes that are taught entirely in French...ha. But to be positive -- Frazer already has his plane ticket for our two week love story in Paris, and they make online translators for a reason. And I will miss my family, but I have already attempted to teach them the glory of Skype, so we will be able to see each other's smiling faces over the miracle of the internet.

So, with one week to go and an incredible amount of packing to do, all I can say is wish me bonne chance!

Bon Voyage,

Cortney